Welcome

Welcome to AGING BY THE BOOK: A Reading Circle.

AGING BY THE BOOK is a 6-week discussion group that uses selections by various writers to spark conversations about aging.

Volunteer facilitators, engaged readers, and the written word combine in AGING BY THE BOOK. It’s a program for organizations that serve older adults, such as public libraries, community centres, and seniors’ residences.

Some aspects of aging are obvious, but many are not. What is this stage of life for, exactly? How do we make it meaningful? How is it represented in the world around us, and how does that match up with what it feels like on the inside?

In AGING BY THE BOOK we turn to literature for illumination. With compassion, eloquence, and humour, writers have given us texts that explore

the shift into new roles and new identities

the impact of physical, cognitive, and emotional changes

the way individuals cope with solitude, and loneliness

the discoveries older adults make when seeking new ways to engage with life.

Participants in AGING BY THE BOOK programs read and discuss texts– poetry, fiction, memoir, non-fiction– and explore how these writings connect to their own experience as aging adults.

The goal of AGING BY THE BOOK is to provide the texts, the physical space, the collaborative community and the facilitation to support this exploration.